Mop with pad securing means



Sept. 8, 1970 H. A. ANDERSON MOP WITH PAD SECURING MEANS 6 INVENTOR.

HOWARD A. ANDERSON Filed Feb. 9, 1968 A r eys United States Patent3,528,076 MOP WITH PAD SECURING MEANS Howard A. Anderson, Pittsburgh,Pa., assignor to Bissell Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich., a corporation ofMichigan Filed Feb. 9, 1968, Ser. No. 704,461 Int. Cl. A471 13/24 U.S.Cl. 228 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A rnop with a head andhandle, is provided with three triangularly spaced circular openings onthe flat bottom surface of the head. The openings each have a pluralityof teeth spaced about the circumference and extending radially inward.The teeth releasably engage a myriad of tiny loops on the surface of amop pad, which is comprised of a lofted, fibrous and very lightweightmaterial that naturally provides the myriad of loops on its surfaces.

The invention relates to a surface cleaning device such as a mop andpad. More particularly, it relates to the manner of attaching animproved pad to the mop head.

In recent years, it has become possible to provide cleaning deviceswhich employ disposable pads or the like instead of reusable pads whichrequired time and effort to clean. With the development of cheapermaterials having the necessary capability to absorb or pick up dirt, ithas become more desirable to simply remove and throw away the pad ratherthan clean it.

Paralleling the development of disposable pads, efforts have been madeto simplify the manner of attaching them to the mop head. However, thedevelopments to date have involved rather complicated structures, whichwere correspondingly expensive to construct and market, and which didnot fully satisfy the requirements of easy attachment and removal.

Previous disposable pad mops often unduly restricted the usable workingarea of the pad, and required multilayer pad elements. Furthermore, themeans for attaching the pad to the head have often lacked durability.

Also, prior head clamping devices were undesirably heavy, and could notbe used with the extremely light weight disposable pads available today.

The present invention solves the above problems, and provides furtheradvantages as revealed in the description below.

The invention may be utilized with any number of mop or like cleaningstructures. The embodiment shown has a mop with a handle and a headhinged thereto to allow the head to extend generally laterally from thehandle. The head has a planular surface on its end remote from thehandle and has an opening therein, with a plurality of rigid teethspaced about the periphery of the opening and extending radiallyinwardly into the open space. A mop pad is provided and is comprised ofa lofted fibrous material which forms a myriad of tiny loops on itssurfaces. The pad is shaped to have one surface adapted to fit fiatagainst the lower planular surface of the mop head in a manner such thatthe teeth removably engage some of the myriad of the tiny loops in thepad surface.

The drawing shows the presently most preferred embodiment of theinvention.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a mop employing the invention therein;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the mop head with mop pad attached;

FIG. 3 is a section taken on line 33 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary elevation of the teeth.

Referring to the drawing, the mop includes a handle 1 and a head 2 whichmay be interconnected by any suitable means, such as the pivotal hinge3. Head 2 is shown as generally triangular and is preferably constructedof a lightweight plastic material which is nevertheless rigid when inrelatively thin segments, and it is here shown to have a thickness onthe order of A; of an inch. Many such plastics are commerciallyavailable.

Head 2 has a flat planular bottom surface 4, which acts as a pad backupsurface for a flat pad and which is usually preferred for most cleaningoperations, and a flat planular upper surface 5 with strengthening ribstherem.

In accordance with the invention, means are provided to secure adisposable pad to head 2. For this purpose, and in the embodiment shown,a hole 6 is disposed in head 2 at each corner of the triangle. As shownin the drawings, the area of the holes should be such that the surface 4is substantially greater, to provide suflicient backup area to maintaina pad flat against the floor.

Holes 6 are shown as generally circular and have pointed teeth 7 spacedabout their circumference and extending radially inward. Teeth 7 arepreferably of the same material as head 2. and may be integral partsthereof. They are pointed at their inner ends, and in the embodimentshown, these pointed ends extend upwardly from the plane of head surface5. The depth of each tooth root is the same as the depth of head 2, butthe edges leading to the point are bevelled, thus narrowing the tooth toa relatively small depth at its point. With this construction, eachtooth 7 resembles a three dimensional arrowhead with one side being flatand the other two surfaces being defined by three lines converging to apoint.

For the cleaning operation, a disposable pad 8 is utilized with head 2.Pad 8 is comprised of a fibrous material whose surface provides a myriadof tiny loops 9 through out. The pad is shaped to correspond to theshape of head 2, with the coarse upper and lower pad surfaces .10 beingflat in this embodiment. Pad 8 shown in the drawings is of uniformcomposition, of a lofted non-woven material such as nylon, or such as acombination of Dacron and viscose. A loosely woven material would alsobe satisfactory. The material used should be lightweight, inexpensive,resilient, flexible and of substantial tensile strength so as to be selfsupporting when of moderate thicknesses, such as /2 inch or the like.The pad 8 can be of varying sizes or shapes and, as shown, can extendoutwardly beyond head 2 to provide more cleaning surface area withoutrequiring a larger or heavier pad support structure.

In utilizing the device of the invention, the operator places pad 8 nextto the flat pad backup surface 4 so that the upper pad surface 10conforms and fits flat against surface 4-. The operator may then applylocalized pressure, as with the thumb, to the bottom surface 10, so thatportions of pad 8 will protrude through the holes 6. As this occurs, thepad will ride up onto the bevelled portions of rigid teeth 7 until someof the pad loops 9 extend over and around the planular upper toothsurfaces. The bottom surface 10 will then temporarily be depressed inthe area corresponding to the positions of the holes 6. Since the padmaterial is resilient and since the backup surface covers a large areaof the pad, the bottom surface 10 will return to a generally flat shapewithin a short period of time, and will do so particularly duringoperation when pressure is being applied against the pad 8. As thisoccurs, the fiber loops over the teeth will be extended above the topsurface of the pad. Thus, the invention leaves nearly of the bottomsurface 10 available for cleaning surface duty.

It is also possible to secure the pad to head 2 by ap plying generalpressure instead of localized pressure. For

example, by merely positioning the pad on a floor, and by pressing themop head 2 against one of the surfaces and jiggling or reciprocating themop, the teeth will engage pad 8 sufiiciently for operation. Generally,no force will act to disengage the pad 8 during operation. Since teeth 7extend in numerous directions, any direction of movement of the mopduring operation will serve only to force more fiber loops 9 intoengagement with the teeth 7. Thus, operation of the mop serves to securethe pad 8 thereto and the operator need not worry about constantlyretrieving his cleaning pad.

Pad 8 is easily removed from head 2 by either pushing downwardly withthe fingers through holes 6 to disengage the fiber loops 9, or byplacing the foot on the extended portion of pad 8 and pulling up on mophandle 1. The fiber loops 9 are flexible enough to be disengaged bymoderate pressure applied in the above manner.

When one surface of pad '8 is dirty, the pad may be reversed on head 2to expose the clean surface. Also, easy removal and the low expense ofreplacement allow the operator to remove and dispose of a used pad, andeasily substitute another.

The invention provides a light, cheaply constructed mop and head, with adisposable, single unit cleaning pad which is efficient, lightweight,easily attached or removed and adaptable to many cleaning operations.

I claim:

1. In a mop:

(a) a generally triangular mop head having a lower side defining abackup surface for pressing upon a surface to be mopped, and having anupper planular surface,

(b) said head having an opening disposed adjacent each corner of thetriangle;

(c) a plurality of rigid teeth extending inwardly from around the edgesof each opening, the teeth having pointed inner end portions whichextend upwardly from the plane of said planular surface; and

(d) a mop pad of flexible resilient material having a 4 myriad of loopson its surface, said mop pad being disposed firmly with its uppersurface, against said backup surface and with portions of said upper padsurface being positioned so that the loops thereof are held by saidteeth.

2. In a mop:

(a) a mop head having a planular backup usrface on its lower side; 1 I

(b) said backup surface having a plurality of openings with the planularsurface being substantially greater in area than the plurality ofopenings therein;

(c) a plurality of teeth extending radially inwardly from around theedges of said openings, and

(d) a removable mop pad-having a flat upper surface with a myriad offiber loops which are extendible above said pad surface, the pad havingsome of said loops extending over said teeth and attaching the pad tothe head, the remaining portion of said fiat upper surface of said padbeing disposed flat against the backup surface on the lower side of saidhead.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,118,989 12/1914 Wolf. 1,653,65212/1927 Melniker 15-209.51 1,899,552 2/1933 Bookman 15-209.51 1,921,9218/1933 Harvie. 2,611,147 9/1952 Kampouris 15244.4 2,885,713 5/1959Morrill 15-244 XR 2,954,649 10/1960 Carroll et a1. 3,295,155 1/1967Belsky et a1. 15-147 3,302,232 2/1967 Wasilotf et a1. 15230.17 3,395,4168/1968 Hughes 15-228 FOREIGN PATENTS 214,267 9/1956 Australia.

DANIEL BLUM, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 24-204

